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[The Cypriot]

Banayia mu flanjin bu 'shis. Abu negadonnede me da bidera, dron don i ornithes.

E inda bou nekatonese kalo?

Alli gamnun da me don gobon dus, alli me don drobon dus.

[Get Real!]

Alli gamnun da me don gobon dus, alli me don drobon dus.

E kitaxe, emenan xeroun me gia sphiligountri gia xronia tora giauto en mathimeni… sto vathos areski tous na tous vasanizo, aman bo a kamo tsi girevkoun me tsie thelloun tsiallo!

[The Cypriot]

Alli gamnun da me don gobon dus, alli me don drobon dus.

E kitaxe, emenan xeroun me gia sphiligountri gia xronia tora giauto en mathimeni… sto vathos areski tous na tous vasanizo, aman bo a kamo tsi girevkoun me tsie thelloun tsiallo!

Gathenas don bonon du j’ o pushtis don golon du.

[The Cypriot]

dp

[Lit]

Consulate of the Republic of Cyprus in St. Petersburg

http://www.mfa.gov.cy/mfa/consulate/con ... enDocument

Cyprus has played an important role in the history of the Eastern Mediterranean on account of its privileged geographical position at the crossroads between the East and the West. The island’s prehistory dates back to the 8th millennium B.C. Subsequent cultural phases developed during the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age periods until the end of the 2nd millennium B.C. However, the most crucial event in the history of Cyprus was the arrival of the Achaean settlers at the end of the 12th and throughout the 11th century B.C. The Greek settlers brought with them new vigor to the already flourishing culture of the island by establishing new towns and introducing the Greek language, new techniques in metallurgy, new artistic styles and even religious elements from the Greek world.

In the subsequent Geometric period, the hellenization of Cyprus was completed and this is probably the period of the establishment of several city-kingdoms, which are well-attested in written sources later in the Archaic and Classical periods.

Cyprus was renowned in ancient times for its copper mines and forests. In this sense it is by no means surprising that its wealth made it the object of contest among the great powers of the Eastern Mediterranean in antiquity: the Assyrians, the Egyptians and the Persians, who in turn became its rulers.

During the 5th century B.C. Athens played an important role in Cyprus, co-operating with the main cities of the island against the Persians.

[Lit]

Cyprus Tourism Organization

http://tinyurl.com/dekhfg

Love Cyprus

Maa - Palaeokastro Settlement

Maa-Palaeokastro, a settlement on the western coast of the island close to Coral Bay, is important for the understanding of the end of the Late Bronze Age in Cyprus. Maa is located a good distance from the nearest main urban centre of the antiquity Palaepafos, some 25 kilometres to the southeast, and 10 kilometres northwest of the modern town of Pafos (Paphos). Its imposing defensive walls were always exposed and gave the site its name of "Palaeokastro” (‘the old castle’). This area was settled by the first Mycenaean Greeks who arrived on the island around 1200 BC, after the fall of the Mycenaean kingdoms in mainland Greece. It is therefore one of the nuclei from which began the Hellenization of Cyprus. Strategic advantages, like the superb natural harbours provided by the sheltered bays and the uninterrupted view of the land and sea approaches, appear to have been dominant in the choice of site.

[Lit]

Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA)

http://www.onassisusa.org/ishtar_aphrodite.htm

The signature piece featured in From Ishtar to Aphrodite will be a large torso of the Goddess Aphrodite, excavated in Cyprus in 1956 and leaving the island for the first time. Pulled from the seabed at Nea Paphos, Cyprus - listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage archeological site -the sculpture was named Aphrodite Anadyomene, literally "Aphrodite emerging from the sea". The statue, missing the head, arms and lower legs of the Goddess, is made from marble imported from the Aegean archipelago; centuries of seawater have weathered the surface of the marble, giving the sculpture its distinctive shine. The figure's raised right arm probably used to hold the end of her long hair, and rivet holes in her hips suggest that a drapery once covered part of the legs. Although fragmentary, this work reflects the sculptural tradition created by Praxiteles, the most famous of the Attic sculptors, as can be seen in the Aphrodite's narrow shoulders and long, broad hips.

The title of the exhibition draws its inspiration from Aphrodite Anadyomene and the movement throughout the ancient world that the goddess represents. Most archaeologists agree that the deity Aphrodite originated as Ishtar, the goddess of sexuality from the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia. Her legend eventually wove its way westward into Syria and Palestine, where she was known as Astarte, and into Cyprus, where she acquired the attributes of the goddess of love. In Greek mythology, Cyprus is considered the birthplace of Aphrodite - in the poems of Homer she is referred to as 'the lady of Kypros (Cyprus)'. Tracing an Eastern symbol in the origins of Aphrodite, so quintessentially Greek, symbolizes Cyprus' role as the easternmost bastion of Hellenism and the island's ability to assimilate the numerous cultural influences to which it was exposed over the centuries.

Greeks first settled in Cyprus during the 12th-century B.C., in the period that followed the collapse of the Mycenean palace economy. The Myceneans, who had long traded with the Eastern Mediterranean, headed east, as evidenced by the similarity of the Cypriot Greek dialect to the Mycenean Greek dialect from that time. This establishment of Aegean Greeks in Cyprus was a Late Bronze Age pre-colonization exodus that took place long before the first organized expeditions of Greek colonization began, and equally long before the Greek polis had come into existence.

[Lit]

The official FxPro Cyprus Rally Website

http://www.cyprusrally.org.cy/2000/visitor/history.htm

2500-1050 B.C.- Bronze Age. Cyprus was known as “Alasia” during this great trading period with its neighbors, partly because of its exploitation of copper. After 1400 B.C., the first of many waves of Greek merchants and settlers (Mycenaeans and Achaeans) reached the island, spreading the Greek language, religion and customs. They gradually took control and established the first city-kingdoms.

1050-750 B.C.- Geometric Period. The Hellenization of Cyprus was complete, with ten city-kingdoms. The cult of Aphrodite flourished in a period of great prosperity.

750-325 B.C.- Archaic and Classical Period. An era of prosperity and conquest. Cypriot kingdoms became tributary to Assyria, Egypt and Persia. But King Evagoras (411-374) unified the island, making it an important center of the Greek world.

333-325 B.C.- Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, takes Cyprus as part of his empire.

[DT.]

Banayia mu flanjin bu 'shis. Abu negadonnede me da bidera, dron don i ornithes.

E inda bou nekatonese kalo?

Alli gamnun da me don gobon dus, alli me don drobon dus.

an tha grafeis greenglish (or chypglish) tote stamata na valeis "g" tjame pou prepei na valeis "k" tjai "t" tjame pou valeis "d"

kamnoun me ton kopon tous...oi. gamnoun me don gobon dous...san to pingouino pou akouese.

[Lit]

Prehistoric Cypriot Art and Culture

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Culture

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pcyp/hd_pcyp.htm

Undeniable influence of the Aegean on Cypriot culture during the Late Bronze Age can be seen in the development of writing, bronzeworking, seal stone carving, jewelry production, and some ceramic styles, especially in the twelfth century B.C., when intermittent Mycenaean settlers were arriving on the island. From about 1500 B.C., the Cypriots began using a still undeciphered script, which very much resembles the Linear A of Minoan Crete. Long examples exist on baked clay tablets and other documents found at urban centers such as Enkomi (on the eastern coast) and Kalavasos (on the southern coast). Engraved and pointed characters of the script appear on a number of vases in the Cesnola Collection at the Metropolitan.

During the Late Bronze Age, Cyprus was also an important center for the manufacture of works of art that show an amalgam of local and foreign influences. Stylistic features and iconographic elements borrowed from Egypt, the Near East, and the Aegean are often mixed together in Cypriot works. Undoubtedly foreign motifs, and the significance they held, were reinterpreted as they became part of distinctive local artistic traditions. Cypriot artisans traveled abroad as well, and in the twelfth century B.C. some Cypriot metalsmiths may have settled as far west as Sicily and Sardinia.

Little is known about the political system on Cyprus during the Late Bronze Age, although the island clearly maintained strong ties with the Near East, especially Syria. Urban centers with palatial structures of the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C., such as Enkomi and Kition, have been excavated extensively, and rich cemeteries of the same period have yielded luxury goods in a variety of materials. From the beginning of the fourteenth century B.C., there was a significant influx to Cyprus of fine quality Mycenaean vessels, which are found almost exclusively in the tombs of an aristocratic elite. With the destruction of the Mycenaean centers in Greece during the twelfth century B.C., political conditions in the Aegean became unstable and refugees left their homes for safer places, including Cyprus, beginning the Hellenization of the island that would take root over the next two centuries.